Buddhist Lent.

This week was a different week because Thursday and Friday were a public holiday--Buddhist Lent. For that reason, our classes were canceled on Wednesday for preparation and Thursday and Friday for the holiday. Here's some photos from last weekend and this week.

This was at Mai Sai for on the border of Thailand and Burma.

A extremely large scorpion statue...

BURMA!

I took this picture for no other reason than to show how many steps we had to climb to viewpoint of Burma. Also there was a temple at the top.

On Thursday we went to the one of the foundation workers tribe, the Aka village, and taught the kids. The Aka tribe is mostly christian so they do not participate in Buddhist lent.

Some of the children from the village.

Pat, one of the Thai interns. She is the sweetest, cutest girl. Her English is quite good so she is such a help in the classroom when we need translation.

On Thursday night the foundation took us to two different temples to participate in the Buddhist Lent. Monks come to the temple and live there for three months. Most Buddhist in the country also decide to give up something for the three month period. We carried flowers, candles, and incense around each temple three times for good luck. After the circling the monks lit off lanterns. It was incredibly beautiful. Some of the lanterns had fireworks in them too. A couple of the fireworks exploded a little too close to the crowd for comfort.

Arya (volunteer), Pat, Kartoon (another intern), and I at the Buddhist lent parade on Friday.

There was a parade on Friday in Chiang Rai for the holiday.